General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Increase the minimum wage! [View all]sammythecat
(3,568 posts)sometimes (too often) I get the panicky feeling I'm living in a country full of stupid people. Like we're one step away from full blown idiocracy.
Your observations of people's reaction to a minimum wage increase are dead on. And it seems they shut down their brains after their first gut reaction. They don't think of the next step and the one after that. Factory workers will always be better paid than McD workers, so their wages will have to increase or else their employers won't have a workforce. On and On. It's a snowball effect. Everybody benefits. Crime goes down, general mental and physical health improves.
We become a better, happier, and more productive society when we have a thriving, comfortable middle class and the poor have a real and legitimate chance to move up. And with millions and millions able to finally spend money and some to spend more, the rich will continue to get rich and they, and the rest of us, will get to live in a much better country. Unless I'm missing something, it looks like win-win for everybody to me. Instead, we seem hell bent on making life miserable and we'll ferociously resist any attempts to change course.
Compassion, reason, logic, the flu, and cancer are all things we fear and desperately want rid of.